Holden Caulfield

Holden Phoebe Caulfield is a tall, lanky sixteen-year-old reeling from his expulsion from Pencey Prep, one of many schools he has failed at or been removed from. He is fiercely intelligent and articulate, yet profoundly alienated from the world around him, which he views as populated by phonies and hypocrites engaged in meaningless rituals. His cynicism is sharp and often cruel—he despises nearly everyone he meets, from his former roommates to taxi drivers to nuns—yet beneath this armor lies a deeply sensitive and wounded adolescent. He is haunted by the death of his younger brother Allie Caulfield, who died of leukemia years before, and he struggles obsessively with questions of mortality, innocence, and the meaninglessness of existence. Holden's relationship with his younger sister Phoebe Caulfield is one of the novel's emotional anchors; he adores her with genuine, uncynical tenderness and is terrified of losing her to the corruption of the adult world. He wanders New York City in a state of spiritual and psychological crisis, engaging in drinking, sexual encounters, and reckless behavior as he searches for something real and uncorrupted in a world he sees as fundamentally phony.